Posts Tagged ‘Celtics’

September 27, 2012 · 5:51 PM ET

by Zettler Clay IV

Celtics star and probable Hall-of-Famer Paul Pierce is doing more than preparing for another go at the Miami Heat. He has sights set on another superlative. Namely, beating the likes of Ed Norton, Alec Baldwin and Snoop Lion in a…Words With Friends tournament?

Yes, I love ‘Words With Friends,’ play it all the time and was excited for this challenge. I heard Snoop likes to make up his own words, so we’ll see how I do against him. I also heard that Ed Norton was a Celtics fan growing up, so I definitely want to show him how it’s done.”

Other celebrities competing: Eva Longoria, John Legend, Jonah Hill, Sophia Bush, Kristen Bell and the aforementioned stars (Norton, Lion, Baldwin). The winner takes home $500,000 to give to a charity of their choice. Pierce — whose charity is The Truth Fund — is the only athlete participating.

I’m sure there are some among the Celtics faithful who would rather see him spend more time hoisting jumpers in an empty gym than vegetating on a couch with a mobile phone.

But hey, if he can pull off a win against guys who dabbles in words for a living…that would be pretty impressive.

September 25, 2012 · 10:22 AM ET

by Micah Hart

You may have noticed it’s the offseason, which means we have plenty of time to sit around and think about many of the things that make it fun to be an NBA fan. Here at All Ball, we’ll be passing the time until the start of the season with a new series, the Fave Five. Each week we’ll count down a list of the five best, or worst … somethings. We’ll try to get creative with it. Plus we’re taking requests! If you have a suggestion for a Fave Five post, give us a shout and you may see it appear in this space over the next several weeks.

Who is going to win the Super Bowl this year? The World Series? Your guess is as good as mine. In the NFL and MLB, who wins from year to year is totally unpredictable. In football it’s about who is lucky and who is healthy; in baseball it’s who is lucky and who gets great pitching.

The NBA is different. There are very, very few Cinderella stories in professional basketball. For my money, the 2011 Mavericks and the 2004 Pistons are the only surprise champions I’ve seen in the NBA in my lifetime.

The best teams almost always prevail. Which is why when we think of the teams who have come up short since the start of the 2000s, the answers are pretty obvious.

Let’s take a look:

5. 2011 San Antonio Spurs

What happened: The Spurs got off to a ridiculous start to the season (they were 29-4 at one point), and for a while there was talk that they might flirt with 70 wins. They cooled a bit down the stretch, but still finished the regular season as the top seed in the Western Conference with a record of 61-21.

The draw in the West looked pretty good, as they faced the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. Talk about a mismatch – the Spurs, four-time NBA champions, versus the Grizz, who to that point had not won a single playoff game in franchise history in three previous appearances. So naturally they advanced to face HEY WAIT A MINUTE!

Memphis shocked San Antonio in six games, and the Spurs went home as only the fourth No. 1 seed to ever lose to a No. 8 seed*.

* The Bulls became the fifth this past season, but methinks that might have turned out differently had Derrick Rose been healthy.

Why they disappointed: I’ll be honest. I don’t really think of this Spurs team as being all that much of a disappointment. Some of that is due to the fact that the Grizzlies turned out to be a pretty good team, and some (maybe a lot) is due to the fact that Manu Ginobili hurt his elbow the final game of the season and was severely limited in the series. Still, 1 seeds don’t lose to 8 seeds, so here they are.

August 25, 2012 · 11:30 AM ET

by Micah Hart

Over at ESPN, the Uni Watch Blog has spent the past week unveiling their rankings of all 122 professional team jersey designs across the four major sports in North America. The top ranking NBA kit? The classic, timeless Boston Celtics, which checked in at 10th overall. Said Uni Watch on the Celts:

The Rolling Stones, “Goodfellas,” a Hershey’s with almonds — the classics are classic for a reason. That definitely applies to the Celtics’ set. No goofy side panels, no extraneous bells or whistles — just a perfect vertically arched wordmark and a simple green-and-white color scheme. They’d jump a few more spots in these rankings if they dropped that black-trimmed alternate.

As for the worst NBA uniforms? Take a bow, Sacramento. Not only do you have the ugliest threads in professional basketball, but Uni Watch lists the Kings dead last amongst all teams:

Every class has a slow kid pulling up the rear, and in this case it’s the Kings. Where shall we start — the brutal color scheme? The illegible chest lettering on the home jersey? The oddly off-center front uni numbers? The clownish number font? The completely incongruous old-school script on the black alternate? A disaster from start to finish. On the bright side, there’s nowhere to go but up!

Ouch babe. Take a look at the full NBA rankings and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

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August 13, 2012 · 1:27 PM ET

by Micah Hart

Remember two seasons ago, when we found out Jason Terrygot a Larry O’Brien trophy tattooed on his bicep at the start of the Mavericks’ title-winning campaign? That was amazing. Like once-in-a-lifetime amazing, especially considering the general consensus on the Mavs’ title chances at the beginning of the year.

I love the confidence, JET, you know I do, but you saw the Lakers’ recent trade, right? You’re going to need the luck o’ the Irish and the luck o’ the Dwight Howard recurring back injury to pull this one off.

June 22, 2012 · 3:13 AM ET

by Micah Hart

What a shortened, yet still very long, strange trip it’s been. In a season that felt like we inhaled on Christmas Day, only to exhale roughly two hours ago, I’m already counting down the days until we start this whole thing over again in November.

But before we start dreaming of a fresh start, let’s pause for a few moments to remember some of the fun and funny we had over the course of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, which started somewhat slowly but picked up speed to the thrilling conclusion that was the Finals series between the victorious Heat and vanquished Thunder.

Here’s a look back at the 10 most amusing moments from the last seven weeks:

10. Amar’e channels Andy Bernard

The Knicks had a lot of hype at one point in the NBA season, but it all began to fall apart starting with a rash of injuries to the likes of Jeremy Lin and ImanShumpert. At least their injuries occurred on the court though. Amar’e Stoudemire made headlines when he punched a fire-extinguisher case after Game 2 of the Knicks’ first-round series against the Heat, causing a huge laceration and forcing the Knicks’ big man to miss the next game of an eventual 4-1 series defeat.

9. Spurs fan gets Matt Bonner haircut, gets suspended

In case you forgot, a Spurs fan got this shaved into the back of his head:

For doing so, he got suspended from school, which seems bad, until the Internet found out about it and the Spurs ended up invited him to a playoff game. Miss school AND see playoff basketball? BEST WEEK EVA! By the way, a month later, the kid did it again.

June 10, 2012 · 12:04 AM ET

by Micah Hart

The Miami Heat have more pressure on them (well, some of the players on their roster do) than just about any professional sports team in history. They aren’t all the way to reaching their goal of a title, but with a huge, emotional win over the Celtics in a thrilling Game 7 on Saturday night, you can’t blame the guys for doing a little dancing to celebrate, can you?

Thanks Heat, for reminding us that life is about the journey, not necessarily the destination.

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June 1, 2012 · 10:03 PM ET

by Micah Hart

The whispers are out there — this Celtics team is too old to handle the Heat, and Boston’s Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen might want to start thinking about post-career plans.

Well, Boston may indeed lose this series, but KG will have you know he’s not ready to be put out to pasture just yet, a point he decided to make during Game 3 after a hard foul by the Heat’s Udonis Haslem:

And if you don’t know, now you know.

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May 23, 2012 · 8:51 PM ET

by Micah Hart

With the Sixers a game away from elimination in their series against the Celtics, the franchise decided they could use a little inspiration. With that in mind, the team brought back Allen Iverson to deliver the game ball before tonight’s Game 6. Consider the crowd inspired:

Very few people receive near-unanimous approval in Philadelphia, but if ever an athlete fit the bill its AI — maybe Rocky. Whether his appearance propels the team to victory, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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April 27, 2012 · 4:13 PM ET

by Micah Hart

This is pretty great. A Celtics’ fan has taken the time to edit together footage of Rajon Rondo‘s strange little opening tip ritual, where for about two seconds he pretends he’s actually a member of the Harlem Globetrotters rather than the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics. Check it out: